Chipotle, Mexican Grill Cheating Customers for Pennies ?

Aug 29, 2012 03:24 PM EDT

The popular fast-food chain Chipotle, which draws in a huge number of customers for its burritos and rice bowls, has been accused of cheating customers out of pennies, by rounding out the bill to their benefit.(Photo : Reuters )

The popular fast-food chain Chipotle, which draws in a huge number of customers for its burritos and rice bowls, has been accused of cheating customers out of pennies, by rounding out the bill to their benefit.

According to an article by the Huffington Post, Chipotle stores across the country, but particularly in New York and New Jersey were rounding off customer bills to nearest nickel.

The story was broken by an investigative reporting conducted by Star Ledger's journalist Karen Price Mueller, who discovered the indiscretion. A Chipotle representative told the newspaper that the practice was not intended to stiff customers, but rather to efficiently ease long lines that the restaurant experiences on a daily basis, especially during lunch time.

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A chipotle spokesperson, Chris Arnold told the newspaper, "It's something we do in some high volume markets, including New Jersey...The way it works is that prices auto-round to the nearest quarter and that's indicated on the receipt. The idea is simply to limit the possible combinations of change on cash transactions to keep the lines moving quickly in high volume areas...It was never our intention to have a policy that was confusing or misleading,"

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The Consumerist said that there is nothing wrong with rounding about the bill as a long as the number is rounded down rather than up.

Chipotle spokesperson said the Chipotle restaurants of New Jersey have started rounding down the bills down beginning August 1.

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So for example, now if you're paying $10.17 for that chicken rice bowl, the next time a Chipotle in New Jersey will round it to $10.15.